Movie Review: Second Act (PG13 – 103 minutes)

Second Act begins by introducing us to Maya, her boyfriend, Trey, and her friends and coworkers at the local Value Mart.  Maya has been working there for several years, has come up with several customer-pleasing projects, and just put in for a manager position.  The head honcho loves Maya’s work, compliments her, but instead decides to bring in a younger outside hire who has just finished up his MBA degree.  Frustrated, Maya vents to her best friend, Joan, and Joan’s son. 

Joan’s son creates a fictitious life online for Maya, and submits her fake resume for several big business consulting jobs.  She gets hired for one and enthusiastically quits her current position.  She then has to maintain the ruse as she tackles creating a new cosmetic cream for her new company with the help of their B team.  Oh, and there’s a bit about how the owner of the new company actually hired her because his adopted daughter is her real daughter.  Hijinks ensue.

The movie is directed by Peter Segal, and it is perfectly fine for a movie of this type. It’s not quite a rom-com, it’s more of a self-realization comedy.  It’s well done, and the cast is terrific. 

• Jennifer Lopez is in full Jenny-from-the-block mode as Maya, a woman who just wants to be recognized for the hard work she has already done and the capabilities she has rather than for the piece of paper she does not have.  She’s suited for this type of character, and does a great job.

• Vanessa Hudgens plays Zoe, the adopted daughter of the new boss who is actually Maya’s real daughter that she gave up for adoption years ago. They have some sweet moments of getting to know one another.  Hudgens is far less annoying here than she is as a judge on SYTYCD.  

• Leah Remini is great friends with Jennifer Lopez in real life, and that really shows through here. I think it is key to the relationship, and makes those scenes have more intensity than they would have elsewise. She is very funny, and really steals the scenes she’s in.

• Treat Williams plays Anderson Clarke, the new boss who has actually been looking for Maya and is super excited to be able to hire her as a consultant.  He makes it through the whole movie being jovial and supportive of his team.

• Milo Ventimiglia plays Trey, who is only focused on baseball and having babies.  Really – his character does not have much depth, but that’s fine, he doesn’t need it here.

• Charleyne Yi plays Maya’s new assistant Ariana. She’s quiet and put upon, but has some good ideas once listened to.

• Alan Aisenberg plays Chase, another member of Maya’s team, there to help to get things done when needed.
• Dave Foley shows up as the competitive make-up-scientist who leads the opposing team.
• Larry Miller plays the head honcho from Value Mart who does not give Maya her promotion.

Overall, the movie is fun and simple, and perfectly fine for a quick weekend watch in January.  I will say, I was disappointed in the end of the movie – spoiler alert – Maya and Trey broke up at the beginning because he was insisting on a family and she was not ready.  The hell with this dude insisting on kids if she doesn’t want them.  At the end, they get back together because he is still insisting on a family and she says she is now ready – admittedly, a lot of her ‘not-readiness’ came from some unresolved issues about having to give her baby up for adoption years ago and not telling him, and by the end of the movie, she’s resolved those issues.  I’ve said this before, but just once I’d love one of these movies to allow the lead to end up single and happy. 

5 out of 10.  Perfectly average.

Movie Review: BumbleBee (PG13, 114 minutes)

I won’t lie to you, I loved the first Michael Bay Transformers movie in 2007.  It was big, loud, and the Transformers were super cool. I was familiar with the Transformers from the 80s cartoons, but the movie updated them in a slick way.  I saw most of the sequels, but not the last one, because Bumblebee was my favorite, and it looked a bit like he might not make it through that last one. 

In any case, in the 2007 Transformers, Bumblebee is already on earth, masquerading as a yellow VW bug in a used car lot owned by Bernie Mac.  He then partners up with Sam Witwicky, calls the rest of the Autobots and fights Megatron and the Decepticons.  This movie begins prior to those events.  Bumblebee is shown with the other Autobots, already in full-on 80s version car-modes, in a war on Cybertron.  The Decepticons are winning, and Optimus Prime scatters his troops, sending Bee to earth.  Once he arrives, he encounters a military group running some training exercises, and just as they are about to turn on him, a pair of Decepticons arrive.

In the ensuing battle, Bee loses his speaking abilities, and his memory as he goes offline.  Having lost track of him, the Decepticons partner up with the military.  Bumblebee ends up hiding in a junkyard until he is discovered by Charlie, a 17-year old who is not entirely sure how to deal with the loss of her father, her younger brother, her mom’s new boyfriend, and her across-the-street neighbor with a crush on her.  After waking up Bee, the two hang out and become buddies, just in time to help each other escape once the Decepticons find out where he has been.

Placing this movie where they do, they could either keep this version going, in effect re-booting the entire franchise. Or, they could stop, and this movie functions as a prequel to the others.  Either way, this is one of the best in the series. It’s a smaller, tighter story, with only a few transformers in it.  Director Travis Knight made a really fun flick with everyone’s favorite Transformer.  Bee’s lack of speech, plus some really cute reactions make him feel like a pet, and he inevitably works his way into your heart. The effects are astounding, and he looks amazing in both robot and car form.  There are still probably too many humans in this robot movie, but they are entertaining enough.

• Hailee Steinfeld is charming as Charlie. She’s a teenager, so she over-reacts to everything. I enjoyed the aspect of her continuing to work on the car her father left her to feel close to him. I also appreciate that she slowly grows to appreciate her mom’s boyfriend, as he tries to do the right thing for her.

• Jorge Lendeborg Jr. plays the across-the-street neighbor, Memo. He’s the comic relief, and does a great job at that.  Also, surprisingly muscular for the dude who is supposed to be the ‘nerd’.

• John Cena continues to be incredibly watchable as Agent Burns, the military dude who begins to realize they are on the wrong side.

• John Ortiz plays Dr. Powell, who thinks we should partner up with the Decepticons.  Come on, guy, they are literally called Decepticons.

• Glynn Turman plays General Whalen, who thinks it’s a good idea to take all the information they can from the Decepticons and then turn on them, because that’s going to go well.

Overall, the movie is super fun, and it looks great. If you liked Bumblebee before, you’ll love this. If you were a fan of the 80s Transformers cartoons, you’ll love this.  If you like 80s music, you will sing out loud with the soundtrack repeatedly – which I did. No shame.

8 out of 10 – really fantastic. I particularly love the bit where Bumblebee gets into the house and accidentally destroys most of it.

Movie Review: Aquaman (PG132 – 143 minutes)

Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman, debuted in DC Comics in November 1941. He was a founding member of the Justice League in the Silver Age, and featured prominently on the Super Friends 80s tv show.  Much maligned as a superhero, he was often belittled for his water powers and ability to talk to fish.  Lately, an effort has been made to re-make Aquaman as more of anti-pollution sea champion, tougher and angrier, as he appeared on the Justice League Unlimited cartoon.  A version of the character also appeared on Smallville, played by Alan Michael Ritchson as a bit of a surfer dude who only wore orange and green.

Jason Momoa debuted his version of Aquaman briefly in Batman v. Superman, and then played him in Justice League, but he gets his full stand-alone treatment here.  The story begins with Tom Curry, a Maori lighthouse keeper in Maine (what?) finding a lady who looks like Nicole Kidman, but dressed in mother-of-pearl armor, washed up on the rocks outside his lighthouse.  He takes her inside, she eats one of his goldfish, and they fall in love.  Eventually, they have a son, Arthur.  When Arthur is about 3 years old, soldiers from her home come to try to take her back. She’s Atlanna, the queen of Atlantis, and was fleeing an arranged marriage.  Afraid they will eventually hurt her husband or son, she heads back, and gets “sacrificed to the beasts of the trench” by her own people.  Arthur is raised and taught to fight by Vulko, eventually learning the truth about what happened to his mother.  Furious at Atlantis in general, he’s fine bumming around the oceans, fighting pirates and polluters.

In Atlantis, Orm (Arthur’s half-brother) is currently ruling as king, but has decided to unite the kingdoms of the ocean to wage war against the surface, and become the Ocean Master.  To do this, he partners up with King Nereus.  Nereus’s daughter, Mera, heads up top to try to get Arthur to come back and claim the throne to prevent the war.  Apparently, in order to do this, Arthur and Mera have to go find a long-forgotten trident, from a previous king, hidden in a secret ocean, and guarded by a leviathan with Julie Andrews’s voice, past the ‘beasts of the trench’. Hijinks and undersea battles ensue.

Listen, it’s all a bit confusing, but it’s brightly colored and action-packed.  James Wan has managed to create the first movie in the DCCU that is fun to watch (second, I suppose – most of Wonder Woman was fun).  The ocean folks and creatures are beautiful, and Atlantis looks amazing. The action is wonderful.  And wow, the costumes look just like they are pulled out of the comics – huge props to Wan for this as most directors insist on changing the iconic looks. Wan insisted they stay true – which is wonderful!  Momoa is incredibly charismatic, and he really does a great job embracing the absurdity.  When he does start talking to creatures, it is done exactly the same way he did it on the cartoon in the 80s, and I loved it.  I will say that the pacing, score, and story were all a little weird.  The score stood out, and not in a good way, it had some weird 80s synth moments that made no sense.  The movie was far too long, and as awesome as Black Manta was, he felt forced into this story, and really needed his own movie.  I will say that the cast all seems to be having a great time.

• Jason Momoa is a dude who is living his best life. He seems to love being Aquaman, and it shows on screen. He is charismatic and fun, and welcomes the audience into the movie.

• Amber Heard plays Mera, and while she and Momoa have zero chemistry, she does just fine with her crazy wig and awesome costume. I enjoyed her hand to hand combat sequences.

• Willem Dafoe plays Vulko, and essentially is relegated to the exposition-duty character. He’s there to tell us what has been, what is going on, and what needs to be accomplished – all while wearing a fancy undersea man-bun.

• Patrick Wilson plays King Orm, the OceanMaster, and honestly, he does a great job and the costume is fantastic. He’s there to unite everyone by whatever means necessary, and take his giant army to war with the surface world.   His reasoning is sound, he is sick of the pollution and weapons of war that the surface is using to kill the oceans. His demonstration of his power with one tidal wave makes it clear how quickly he could wipe out everyone.

• Nicole Kidman plays Atlanna, and I will say, I was a bit surprised by how much fun she seemed to be having. She gets an awesome sequence where she beats up a bunch of bad guys. 

• Dolph Lundgren plays King Nereus, who is conned by Orm into joining his ambitious quest. He’s convinced he’s doing the right thing, even when his daughter, Mera, cautions him against it.

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Black Manta, and he was definitely awesome. He was so awesome, that I almost wish he had been introduced in a post-credits sequence in this movie, so that his origin and story could really get its due. He and his father are pirates, and when Aquaman lets his father die, he swears vengeance with the help of Atlantean weaponry.  That’s simple, straightforward, and Abdul-Mateen has the skill to carry a whole movie with that villainous storyline – he’s really shortchanged here.

• Michael Beach plays Manta senior, and is very cool for the time he has. He and his son clearly have a bond, and a career as pirates. In fact, Beach does such a good job setting up their relationship, that when Aquaman lets him die, you almost want to side with team Manta! 

• The incredible Temuera Morrison, who is “just a simple man, trying to make his way in the universe”, plays Tom Curry. He gives Tom kindness and determination, plus a whole bunch of fun when out drinking with his son.  The scenes of him going to the end of the pier at sunrise every morning just in case Atlanna comes back were lovely.

• Randall Park plays Dr. Stephen Shin, a man who is convinced Atlantis is real and angry and coming after us. In the post-credits bit, he seems to team up with Black Manta.

Overall, the movie is fun. It is way too long, and it is choppy and uneven, and man, the score is bizarre – but, it is entertaining and there are plenty of stunning CGI ocean-creatures.  Hey – some of them are riding sharks! Momoa is having so much fun, it’s hard to resist having fun with him, especially when he shows up in the iconic orange and green comic outfit.

6 out of 10.

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